New to Tegus - Can I keep him partly outside?

[dimetrodon]

I don't have a Tegu yet, but I really want to get one. I have plenty of room in my home to build a large enclosure, but I have in mind something really big that I could only really do outside. I was thinking of building a 20x10x6 outside with buried underground wire and wooden boards raised high enough to allow piled soil and mulch for burrowing.

I live in Arizona, so it's very hot most of the year. I know in some areas people keep their tegus outside, but I don't understand how they keep the humidity up. It would seem impossible to do this in AZ and I was wondering if it would be impossible to keep him outside during the Spring and Summer.

What do people do if keeping their tegu partly outside? Do they soak the mulch in contained areas for moisture? Offer large pool sized dishes?

Also, it always gets a bit chilly here in the desert at night. Would it better to bring the tegu in every night to a sleeping enclosure or do people use basking lights?

Sorry if I'm asking a lot of questions! I just thought it would be awesome to have a really giant enclosure that wouldn't typically fit inside a house. If this is not appropriate, I'll have to construct something smaller inside.

 

[laurarfl]

I'm not sure how that would work. People I do know who keep them outside do so in humid climates.

 

[Deac77]

I live in Texas were its dry and HOT we keep out iguanas outside with a misting system made out his PVC cage it comes on 4-6 times a day

 

[TeguBuzz]

I keep my cyclura iguanas outside here in Texas. I'm in Houston - where it's quite hot and we have high levels of humidity so my iguanas thrive. They've never had problems shedding. About once a week I give them a hose down not to aid in shedding, but mainly because they seem to enjoy it.

 

[Bubblz Calhoun]

Weather wise Arizona is pretty much the same as here in Vegas. With keeping them outside your main issue like stated would be lack of humidity and cold nights. Humidity would depend on how you keep your yard, vegitated or desert landscape. Without vegitation in the desert you can pretty much forget about humidity especially in the summer time. With that, vegitated landscapes are not necessarily harder to maintain but cost more. Especially in drier climates with water shortages, think of how much more your water bill will go up.

Cold nights wouldn't be much of a big deal, you can bring them in or make a burrow with heating pads or tape with a low thermostat or regulator setting. Which may or may not affect your electricity bill much.

Either way it's doable, just requires more than what other places would. The last place I stayed half the yard was cement and the other half was vegitated, grass, trees, bushes and all. Natsuki would spend most of the day outside (when I was home) in spring and summer pretty much moving between the two places when needed. Once he was done he would be at the back door scratching like one of the dogs. Dino was just about the same in the place before that one, which was desert scaped with rocks and a few bushes. But there was less vegitation and therefore less humidity so he would bask for a bit, make his rounds around the yard marking or what ever, then be at the door scratching as well.

 

[dimetrodon]

Thanks, I'll take this all into consideration. We do have a monsoon season here that affects half the summer so I know during that time he would be in tegu heaven outside. Otherwise, I'm first going to work on building an inside enclosure before attempting this outdoors. I'm going to try to figure something out because we have perfect weather here in Arizona for most of the year, but only during that rainy period is there much humidity. :/